National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts cites IP protection in backing AT&T/T-Mobile merger

AT&T has shown a commitment to preventing online piracy of movies and music while T-Mobile's efforts have been "less than adequate," according to a filing from the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts.

The group, which works to raise the profile of Hispanics in the entertainment industry, argued AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile would benefit content creators because AT&T has gone much further than T-Mobile to ensure its networks aren't used to download pirated content. "Through its corporate policies and internal operations, AT&T and its leadership have exhibited a commitment to safeguarding copywritten content and intellectual property such as music, movies, and images," wrote Chairman Felix Sanchez, who co-founded the group in 1997 with actor Jimmy Smits and others.

Sanchez acknowledged that NHFA has received a total of $10,000 in contributions from AT&T over the past five years, with no "substantial" contributions before that time period. He said AT&T promised nothing to his group during that time period and noted that the NHFA has regularly submitted comments on issues in front of the Federal Communications Commission.